Some systems (e.g., communication systems, data processing systems, etc.) distribute data in packets for transmitting the data throughout a network such as a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or other similar networking scheme. In some networking schemes various amounts of data are included in each of the transmitted data packets. Typically, data packet length increases as more data is included in the data packet, although, the length of the data packet may also depend on the transmission capability (i.e., transmission rate, bus width, etc.) of the network. Alternatively, some networks, such as asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks, transfer fixed-length data packets known as cells. Each fixed-length cell has a length of 53 bytes and includes a header that is 5 bytes in length and a data payload that is 48 bytes in length. To transfer a data packet transmitted on a network, which allows various data packet lengths, to an ATM network, which only transmits fixed-length cells, the data packet is converted into one or more fixed-length cells. To convert the data packet, the number of fixed-length cells needed to store the data included in the data packet is determined by dividing the length of the data packet by the fixed-length cell payload length (i.e., 48 bytes) during a time period budgeted for processing each data packet.